O.M.G. [Slump] Movie Review: The Road

A word I have often heard people use to describe the novel The Road is "bleak." I have not read said book, but I think I can safely say the movie does a pretty good job of capturing that general mood.

Another thing I can safely say is that, unlike in the last post-apocalypse movie I reviewed (Zombieland),  the moments of levity in this one were few (though not non-existent). I can further add that, as in the last movie I reviewed where coughing was a major plot point (Bright Star), in the post-apocalyptic world it will be possible to catch your death of cold.

This is not one of your happy-go-lucky "the apocalypse was just a bunch of zombies, no big" type movies. This is more a "got your soul-crushing hopelessness right here, buddy," type movie.

In case you're not familiar with the story, this film is about a man and his son heading south through a blighted landscape after some unspecified apocalypse. We don't know what happened, and it really doesn't matter. People are freezing, starving, and resorting to cannibalism; are specifics really crucial? To the characters, I expect not. Whatever it was, it killed pretty much everything and the whole world is now gray, wracked by earthquakes, and getting steadily colder.

Judging from the age of the boy, who was born shortly after the event, this film takes place 8-10 years out from apocalypse, and things are not going well. Nothing seems to be alive except a few people you don't really want to run into, the cars and buildings are mostly wrecks, and there's hardly anything to eat.

The movie does an excellent job of depicting this bleak world, such that walking off into the winter night without a coat, rather than continuing the struggle to survive, seems like a pretty reasonable option.

We follow the nameless Man, played by Viggo Mortensen, and his son, the Boy, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, as they head south (because you've got to head somewhere). They run into various people along the way, and the man's distrust of strangers is generally proven well-founded.

And soul-crushing hopelessness ensues, spiced up by moments of horror and occasional small triumphs that really sort of just underline the general hopelessness, so you're not quite sure they're doing anyone any favors.

There was no mention of libraries, which I suspect would have served little purpose in the film's world other than as a place to hole up and die (again, not an unattractive option!), but there was the nagging health issue of that cough, as well as some good do-it-yourself medical uses for staplers and duct tape.

I thought it was quite good. Well acted, moving, with lots of stark, soul-crushing cinematography. And was that a possible glint of hope? You should totally check it out.

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